Lessons from Elijah – dependence

Now Elijah the tishbite of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years except by my word.”

Bold words spoken to the king here. So what’s with the rain?

In the early history of the Jewish people, God promised that they would inherit a great land, flowing with milk and honey. I’ve set aside a place for you guys and it’s going to be awesome. You’re going to love it. You’ll be the envy of everyone because it is such an amazing place. Crops grow there in abundance and your cattle will be fat and happy. Sounds awesome, right? Sign me up.

So we know the rest of the story, right? They ended up in a place called the “Fertile Crescent,” and it was totally that. Fertile. The people prospered greatly. The only thing…this was a unique setting in that the biggest fresh water source, the Jordan River, was in a valley called the Jordan Rift. They didn’t have the technology to irrigate it because the water was too low. This was a fertile crescent that depended 100% on rain.

There are many lessons from the rain which I plan to share here, but the thought I want to share today is this: God promised his people great blessings, but that these blessings required complete dependence and trust in Him.

God promises blessings but they are contingent on our dependence upon him.

God will not share His glory with anyone else. Blessings come from Him. Often in my life, I will take credit when things go well and blame God when things are rough. I am staunchly independent and willful but God calls me to dependence and offers me blessing. “Cease striving,” the Psalm says, “And know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)

“For my people have committed 2 evils,” the prophet Jeremiah wrote, “they have forsaken Me, the Fountain of Living Waters, and have hewn for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”